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I am inspired to begin training to tackle the highest peak in Florida.
Britton Hill.
It is 345 feet above sea level.
The summit is an arduous 40' from the parking lot base camp at 343'.
Marv and I are putting together climbing gear and considering oxygen.
They will send their local police to raid your place and charge you with a felony in a jurisdiction you never ventured to.
Oh, and the local po-po totally cooperated with the interlopers from out of state too.
Good job, Sheriff! Way to protect your constituent's rights.
It's been an honest 95° F around here lately.
Couple that with Florida's normal crushing humidity, it's been HOT.
No time for the air conditioning to go out.
But it was not running at 2pm.
The thermostat SAID it was on, but it wasn't running.
CRAP!
The normal mode of fail for AC appears to be the starter capacitor.
Since it's Saturday, there are no places open that sell them.
CRAP!
In the course of troubleshooting, I turned the fan in the air-handler from auto to on.
No fan.
CRAP!
But when we returned from our fruitless search for a cap, the fan had started back up.
Clue.
Marv tested the cap and it tested good.
Clue.
Noting all of the water at the drain line, I wondered if the float switch in the cabinet had tripped.
So I blew out the line.
Got LOTS of slimy algae out and a huge rush of water.
Put the fuse back into the box and the compressor fired right up and cold air began to flow!
Now that I think about it, the installer DID mention having to clear that line occasionally... Oops. My bad.
Wanted: Brave aviators to man the hanger queens and escort Nancy Pelosi into Taiwan.
It's a mission you might not come back from, since we're not going to risk a serviceable plane on this mission.
You only need to stay in there long enough for the Communist West Taiwanese Army Air Force to start shooting to kill Madame Speaker's plane before jettisoning the aircraft.
Do it for your nation!
PS: If any other members of Congress wish to accompany Ms Pelosi on her trip, America is willing to make that sacrifice applauds your bravery in standing up to the Red Taiwanese! Mr Schumer, you should really go with. You can't have The Speaker of the House showing you up, now, can you?
There's a thread on Arfcom asking what gun for a female.
I posted a pic of The Lovely Harvey's Kevina.
 |
| Seen here with Brenda... |
My logic for getting Harvey semi-auto pistols and AR's was that we teach every know-nothin' 'cruit how to use an M16 or M4 and many how to use a pistol.
There's no damned reason that a "female" cannot learn to use any particular gun.
It's sexist to assume otherwise.
Way back in 2018 Vickers Guy sent me a gift of East German 5.45x39mm magazines.
For free!
They are now running $80 each.
Unglaublich!
Once again, THANKS!
Two ratfuck cockbite RINO's voted FOR the AWB in the House today. One Republican did not vote.
No roll call yet.
Five Dems voted against.
217-213.
It should have been 215-216 if we'd managed to get all the Republicans to vote as they should have.
Apparently they will be voting on repealing the Protection in Lawful Commerce law too.
Update:
Two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., and Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., broke with their party to vote yes on the bill. Five Democrats, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas; Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Oreg., and Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wisc. broke with their party to vote no.
KE Arms, maker of the KP-15 monolithic lower is being sued by GWACS Armory.
Recoil Magazine article on the topic.
Satanist YouTuber commentary:
Normally I wouldn't give Mr Karsada the time of day, or the click, but the word needs to be gotten out.
I have followed the Cav Arms lower for years, back when it was still made my Cav Arms and held together with screws!
There simply isn't any IP to sue over because it's all prior art and or open sourced.
That doesn't stop someone from forcing you to prove that and spend money on lawyers to do so.
Lawfare is killing America, if you ask me.
Of note, in the Recoil article is a discount code at KE Arms for 25% off. Buying something form them gives them needed capitol to defend themselves from this baseless suit.
Lord knows I don't need anything from them, but the KP-9 lower sure is enticing. I've kinda wanted a 9mm AR for a while and I already stock Glock 17 magazines...
But it's a case of cheap lower and expensive everything else. AGAIN. Never mind that I'd simply HAVE to plop down $200 to SBR it. Just for looks, of course.
Mexico City has an immigrant problem.
I'm laughing my ass off at how they're complaining about Americans moving down there.
How do you say, "trade you," in Spanish?
It appears that The Venetian will rifle through your bags and take your guns.
Mr Reeves is a lawyer and he's sanguine about there being any kind of recourse besides never giving them another dime.
It appears that it's not illegal for the hotel staff to go through your shit, and that alone is enough to keep my ass out of a hotel that does shit like this.
The Venetian is a gun free zone by stated policy in their FAQ.
They don't want us filthy Jews Blacks Homosexuals Irish gun-owners in their establishment. Fine by me.
I think we should let SHOT know that we don't want attend a convention where we're not welcome.
I stole the following from a 2008 post on Arfcom. It's good advice should you get a return on the tax for people who are bad at math.
Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That's great.
Now you're fucked.
No really.
You are.
You're fucked.
I've seen this question (what to do if you win the lottery), a few times on ARFCOM. Amusingly, it recurs quite often. I posted a similar article to this one "back when" but I've updated it with some actual stories and slapped it in GD because, well, why not?
Keep in mind: IAALBNY (I Am A Lawyer, But Not Yours). Consult professional advisers before spending your hard earned lottery cash.
It's long. There are no cliff notes. But if you just want to skip the biographical tales of woe of some of the math-tax protagonists, skip on down to the next line in bold.
You see, it's something of an open secret that winners of obnoxiously large jackpots tend to end up badly with alarming regularity. Not the $1 million dollar winners. But anyone in the nine-figure range is at high risk. Eight-figures? Pretty likely to be screwed. Seven-figures? Yep. Painful. Perhaps this is a consequence of the sample. The demographics of lottery players might be exactly the wrong people to win large sums of money. Or perhaps money is the root of all evil. Either way, you are going to have to be careful. Don't believe me? Consider this:
Large jackpot winners face double digit multiples of probability versus the general population to be the victim of:
Homicide (something like 20x more likely)
Drug overdose
Bankruptcy (how's that for irony?)
Kidnapping
And triple digit multiples of probability versus the general population rate to be:
Convicted of drunk driving
The victim of Homicide (at the hands of a family member) 120x more likely in this case, ain't love grand?
A defendant in a civil lawsuit
A defendant in felony criminal proceedings
Believe it or not, your biggest enemy if you suddenly become possessed of large sums of money is... you. At least you will have the consolation of meeting your fate by your own hand. But if you can't manage it on your own, don't worry. There are any number of willing participants ready to help you start your vicious downward spiral for you. Mind you, many of these will be "friends," "friendly neighbors," or "family." Often, they won't even have evil intentions. But, as I'm sure you know, that makes little difference in the end. Most aren't evil. Most aren't malicious. Some are. None are good for you.
Jack Whittaker, a Johnny Cash attired, West Virginia native, is the poster boy for the dangers of a lump sum award. In 2002 Mr. Whittaker (55 years old at the time) won what was, also at the time, the largest single award jackpot in U.S. history. $315 million. At the time, he planned to live as if nothing had changed, or so he said. He was remarkably modest and decent before the jackpot, and his ship sure came in, right? Wrong.
Mr. Whittaker became the subject of a number of personal challenges, escalating into personal tragedies, complicated by a number of legal troubles.
Whittaker wasn't a typical lottery winner either. His net worth at the time of his winnings was in excess of $15 million, owing to his ownership of a successful contracting firm in West Virginia. His claim to want to live "as if nothing had changed" actually seemed plausible. He should have been well equipped for wealth. He was already quite wealthy, after all. By all accounts he was somewhat modest, low profile, generous and good natured. He should have coasted off into the sunset. Yeah. Not exactly.
Whittaker took the all-cash option, $170 million, instead of the annuity option, and took possession of $114 million in cash after $56 million in taxes. After that, things went south.
Whittaker quickly became the subject of a number of financial stalkers, who would lurk at his regular breakfast hideout and accost him with suggestions for how to spend his money. They were unemployed. No, an interview tomorrow morning wasn't good enough. They needed cash NOW. Perhaps they had a sure-fire business plan. Their daughter had cancer. A niece needed dialysis. Needless to say, Whittaker stopped going to his breakfast haunt. Eventually, they began ringing his doorbell. Sometimes in the early morning. Before long he was paying off-duty deputies to protect his family. He was accused of being heartless. Cold. Stingy.
Letters poured in. Children with cancer. Diabetes. MS. You name it. He hired three people to sort the mail. A detective to filter out the false claims and the con men (and women) was retained.
Brenda, the clerk who had sold Whittaker the ticket, was a victim of collateral damage. Whittaker had written her a check for $44,000 and bought her house, but she was by no means a millionaire. Rumors that the state routinely paid the clerk who had sold the ticket 10% of the jackpot winnings hounded her. She was followed home from work. Threatened. Assaulted.
Whittaker's car was twice broken into, by trusted acquaintances who watched him leave large amounts of cash in it. $500,000 and $200,000 were stolen in two separate instances. The thievesattempted tospiked Whittaker's drink with prescription drugs in the first instance.Whittaker was violently allergic to the drug used, and likely would have died given the distance to the nearest emergency room, and the lateness of the hour, but,unfortunatelyhe did notconsumed the drink containing the narcotics. The second incident was the handiwork of his granddaughter's friends, who had been probing the girl for details on Whittaker's cash for weeks.
Even Whittaker's good-faith generosity was questioned. When he offered $10,000 to improve the city's water park so that it was more handicap accessible, locals complained that he spent more money at the strip club. (Amusingly this was true).
Whittaker invested quite a bit in his own businesses, tripled the number of people his businesses employed (making him one of the larger employers in the area) and eventually had given away $14 million to charity through a foundation he set up for the purpose. This is, of course, what you are "supposed" to do. Set up a foundation. Be careful about your charity giving. It made no difference in the end.
To top it all off, Whittaker had been accused of ruining a number of marriages. His money made other men look inferior, they said, wherever he went in the small West Virginia town he called home. Resentment grew quickly. And festered. Whittaker paid four settlements related to this sort of claim. Yes, you read that right. Four.
His family and their immediate circle were quickly the victims of odds-defying numbers of overdoses, emergency room visits and even fatalities. His granddaughter, the eighteen year old "Brandi" (who Whittaker had been giving a $2100.00 per week allowance) was found dead after having been missing for several weeks. Her death was, apparently, from a drug overdose, but Whittaker suspected foul play. Her body had been wrapped in a tarp and hidden behind a rusted-out van. Her seventeen year old boyfriend had expired three months earlier in Whittaker'svacationhouse, also from an overdose. Some of his friends had robbed the house after his overdose, stepping over his body to make their escape and then returning for more before stepping over his body again to leave. His parents sued for wrongful death claiming that Whittaker's loose purse strings contributed to their son's death. Amazingly, juries are prone to award damages in cases such as these. Whittaker settled. Again.
Even before the deaths, the local and state police had taken a special interest in Whittaker after his new-found fame. He was arrested for minor and less minor offenses many times after his winnings, despite having had a nearly spotless record before the award. Whittaker's high profile couldn't have helped him much in this regard.
In 18 months Whittaker had been cited for over 250 violations ranging from broken tail lights on every one of his five new cars, to improper display of renewal stickers. A lawsuit charging various police organizations with harassment went nowhere and Whittaker was hit with court costs instead.
Whittaker's wife filed for divorce, and in the process froze a number of his assets and the accounts of his operating companies. Caesars in Atlantic City sued him for $1.5 million to cover bounced checks, caused by the asset freeze.
Today Whittaker is badly in debt, and bankruptcy looms large in his future.
But, hey, that's just one example, right?
Wrong.
Nearly one third of multi-million dollar jackpot winners eventually declare bankruptcy. Some end up worse. To give you just a taste of the possibilities, consider the fates of:
Billie Bob Harrell, Jr.: $31 million. Texas, 1997. As of 1999: Committed suicide in the wake of incessant requests for money from friends and family. “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
William “Bud” Post: $16.2 million. Pennsylvania. 1988. In 1989: Brother hires a contract murderer to kill him and his sixth wife. Landlady sued for portion of the jackpot. Convicted of assault for firing a gun at a debt collector. Declared bankruptcy. Dead in 2006.
Evelyn Adams: $5.4 million (won TWICE 1985, 1986). As of 2001: Poor and living in a trailer gave away and gambled most of her fortune.
Suzanne Mullins: $4.2 million. Virginia. 1993. As of 2004: No assets left.
Shefik Tallmadge: $6.7 million. Arizona. 1988. As of 2005: Declared bankruptcy.
Thomas Strong: $3 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2006: Died in a shoot-out with police.
Victoria Zell: $11 million. 2001. Minnesota. As of 2006: Broke. Serving seven year sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
Karen Cohen: $1 million. Illinois. 1984. As of 2000: Filed for bankruptcy. As of 2006: Sentenced to 22 months for lying to federal bankruptcy court.
Jeffrey Dampier: $20 million. Illinois. 1996. As of 2006: Kidnapped and murdered by own sister-in-law.
Ed Gildein: $8.8 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2003: Dead. Wife saddled with his debts. As of 2005: Wife sued by her own daughter who claimed that she was taking money from a trust fund and squandering cash in Las Vegas.
Willie Hurt: $3.1 million. Michigan. 1989. As of 1991: Addicted to cocaine. Divorced. Broke. Indicted for murder.
Michael Klingebiel: $2 million. As of 1998 sued by own mother claiming he failed to share the jackpot with her.
Janite Lee: $18 million. 1993. Missouri. As of 2001: Filed for bankruptcy with $700 in assets.
Mack Metcalf: $65 million. Kentucky. 2000. As of 2001: Divorced. As of 2002: Sued girlfriend for $500,000 claiming he was drunk when he gave it to her. Sued by wife for child support. As of 2003: Died of alcoholism. As of a few months later in 2003: Second wife bought a mansion with the money, collected dozens of stray cats and died of a drug overdose immediately after moving in.
I could go on quite a bit.
So, what the hell DO you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?
This is the absolutely most important thing you can do right away: NOTHING.
Yes. Nothing.
DO NOT DECLARE YOURSELF THE WINNER yet.
Do NOT tell anyone. The urge is going to be nearly irresistible. Resist it. Trust me.
1. IMMEDIATELY retain an attorney. Get a partner from a larger, NATIONAL firm. Don't let them pawn off junior partners or associates on you. They might try, all law firms might, but insist instead that your lead be a partner who has been with the firm for awhile. Do NOT use your local attorney. Yes, I mean your long-standing family attorney who did your mother's will. Do not use the guy who fought your dry-cleaner bill. Do not use the guy you have trusted your entire life because of his long and faithful service to your family. In fact, do not use any firm that has any connection to family or friends or community. TRUST me. This is bad. You want someone who has never heard of you, any of your friends, or any member of your family. Go the the closest big city and walk into one of the national firms asking for one of the "Trust and Estates" partners you have previously looked up on http://www.martindale.com from one of the largest 50 firms in the United States which has an office near you. You can look up attornies by practice area and firm on Martindale. The top 50 firms by size are:
Baker & McKenzie
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary
Jones Day
White & Case
Latham & Watkins
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
Greenberg Traurig
Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Holland & Knight
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Kirkland & Ellis
Morrison & Foerster
McDermott, Will & Emery
Shearman & Sterling
Hogan & Hartson
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham
Reed Smith
O’Melveny & Myers
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
Foley & Lardner
Fulbright & Jaworski
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Dechert
King & Spalding
Bingham McCutchen
Wilson, Elser Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker
Winston & Strawn
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey
Hunton & Williams
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Bryan Cave
Vinson & Elkins
Ropes & Gray
Proskauer Rose
Heller Ehrman
Alston & Bird
McGuireWoods
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Baker Botts
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Debevoise & Plimpton
Nixon Peabody
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae
2. Decide to take the lump sum. Most lotteries pay a really pathetic rate for the annuity. It usually hovers around 4.5% annual return or less, depending. It doesn't take much to do better than this, and if you have the money already in cash, rather than leaving it in the hands of the state, you can pull from the capital whenever you like. If you take the annuity you won't have access to that cash. That could be good. It could be bad. It's probably bad unless you have a very addictive personality. If you need an allowance managed by the state, it is because you didn't listen to point #1 above.
Why not let the state just handle it for you and give you your allowance?
Many state lotteries pay you your "allowence" (the annuity option) by buying U.S. treasury instruments and running the interest payments through their bureaucracy before sending it to you along with a hunk of the principal every month. You will not be beating inflation by much, if at all. There is no reason you couldn't do this yourself, if a low single-digit return is acceptable to you.
You aren't going to get even remotely the amount of the actual jackpot. Take our old friend Mr. Whittaker. Using Whittaker is a good model both because of the reminder of his ignominious decline, and the fact that his winning ticket was one of the larger ones on record. If his situation looks less than stellar to you, you might have a better perspective on how "large" your winnings aren't. Whittaker's "jackpot" was $315 million. He selected the lump-sum cash up-front option, which knocked off $145 million (or 46% of the total) leaving him with $170 million. That was then subject to withholding for taxes of $56 million (33%) leaving him with $114 million.
In general, you should expect to get about half of the original jackpot if you elect a lump sum (maybe better, it depends). After that, you should expect to lose around 33% of your already pruned figure to state and federal taxes. (Your mileage may vary, particularly if you live in a state with aggressive taxation schemes).
3. Decide right now, how much you plan to give to family and friends. This really shouldn't be more than 20% or so. Figure it out right now. Pick your number. Tell your lawyer. That's it. Don't change it. 20% of $114 million is $22.8 million. That leaves you with $91.2 million. DO NOT CONSULT WITH FAMILY when deciding how much to give to family. You are going to get advice that is badly tainted by conflict of interest, and if other family members find out that Aunt Flo was consulted and they weren't you will never hear the end of it. Neither will Aunt Flo. This might later form the basis for an allegation that Aunt Flo unduly influenced you and a lawsuit might magically appear on this basis. No, I'm not kidding. I know of one circumstance (related to a business windfall, not a lottery) where the plaintiffs WON this case.
Do NOT give anyone cash. Ever. Period. Just don't. Do not buy them houses. Do not buy them cars. Tell your attorney that you want to provide for your family, and that you want to set up a series of trusts for them that will total 20% of your after tax winnings. Tell him you want the trust empowered to fund higher education, some help (not a total) purchase of their first home, some provision for weddings and the like, whatever. Do NOT put yourself in the position of handing out cash. Once you do, if you stop, you will be accused of being a heartless bastard (or bitch). Trust me. It won't go well.
It will be easy to lose perspective. It is now the duty of your friends, family, relatives, hangers-on and their inner circle to skew your perspective, and they take this job quite seriously. Setting up a trust, a managed fund for your family that is in the double digit millions is AMAZINGLY generous. You need never have trouble sleeping because you didn't lend Uncle Jerry $20,000 in small denomination unmarked bills to start his chain of deep-fried peanut butter pancake restaurants. ("Deep'n 'nutter Restaurants") Your attorney will have a number of good ideas how to parse this wealth out without turning your siblings/spouse/children/grandchildren/cousins/waitresses into the latest Paris Hilton.
4. You will be encouraged to hire an investment manager. Considerable pressure will be applied. Don't.
Investment managers charge fees, usually a percentage of assets. Consider this: If they charge 1% (which is low, I doubt you could find this deal, actually) they have to beat the market by 1% every year just to break even with a general market index fund. It is not worth it, and you don't need the extra return or the extra risk. Go for the index fund instead if you must invest in stocks. This is a hard rule to follow. They will come recommended by friends. They will come recommended by family. They will be your second cousin on your mother's side. Investment managers will sound smart. They will have lots of cool acronyms. They will have nice PowerPoint presentations. They might (MIGHT) pay for your shrimp cocktail lunch at TGI Friday's while reminding you how poor their side of the family is. They live for this stuff.
You should smile, thank them for their time, and then tell them you will get back to them next week. Don't sign ANYTHING. Don't write it on a cocktail napkin (lottery lawsuit cases have been won and lost over drunkenly scrawled cocktail napkin addition and subtraction figures with lots of zeros on them). Never call them back. Trust me. You will thank me later. This tactic, smiling, thanking people for their time, and promising to get back to people, is going to have to become familiar. You will have to learn to say no gently, without saying the word "no." It sounds underhanded. Sneaky. It is. And its part of your new survival strategy. I mean the word "survival" quite literally.
Get all this figured out BEFORE you claim your winnings. They aren't going anywhere. Just relax.
5. If you elect to be more global about your paranoia, use between 20.00% and 33.00% of what you have not decided to commit to a family fund IMMEDIATELY to purchase a combination of longer term U.S. treasuries (5 or 10 year are a good idea) and perhaps even another G7 treasury instrument. This is your safety net. You will be protected... from yourself.
You are going to be really tempted to starting being a big investor. You are going to be convinced that you can double your money in Vegas with your awesome Roulette system/by funding your friend's amazing idea to sell Lemming dung/buying land for oil drilling/by shorting the North Pole Ice market (global warming, you know). This all sounds tempting because "Even if I lose it all I still have $XX million left! Anyone could live on that comfortably for the rest of their life." Yeah, except for 33% of everyone who won the lottery.
You're not going to double your money, so cool it. Let me say that again. You're not going to double your money, so cool it. Right now, you'll get around 3.5% on the 10 year U.S. treasury. With $18.2 million (20% of $91.2 mil after your absurdly generous family gift) invested in those you will pull down $638,400 per year. If everything else blows up, you still have that, and you will be in the top 1% of income in the United States. So how about you not fuck with it. Eh? And that's income that is damn safe. If we get to the point where the United States defaults on those instruments, we are in far worse shape than worrying about money.
If you are really paranoid, you might consider picking another G7 or otherwise mainstream country other than the U.S. according to where you want to live if the United States dissolves into anarchy or Britney Spears is elected to the United States Senate. Put some fraction in something like Swiss Government Bonds at 3%. If the Swiss stop paying on their government debt, well, then you know money really means nothing anywhere on the globe anymore. I'd study small field sustainable agriculture if you think this is a possibility. You might have to start feedng yourself.
6. That leaves, say, 80% of $91.2 million or $72.9 million. Here is where things start to get less clear. Personally, I think you should dump half of this, or $36.4 million, into a boring S&P 500 index fund. Find something with low fees. You are going to be constantly tempted to retain "sophisticated" advisers who charge "nominal fees." Don't. Period. Even if you lose every other dime, you have $638,400 per year you didn't have before that will keep coming in until the United States falls into chaos. Fuck advisers and their fees. Instead, drop your $36.4 million in the market in a low fee vehicle. Unless we have an unprecedented downturn the likes of which the United States has never seen, should return around 7.00% or so over the next 10 years. You should expect to touch not even a dime of this money for 10 or 15 or even 20 years. In 20 years $36.4 million could easily become $115 million.
7. So you have put a safety net in place. You have provided for your family beyond your wildest dreams. And you still have $36.4 million in "cash." You know you will be getting $638,400 per year unless the capital building is burning, you don't ever need to give anyone you care about cash, since they are provided for generously and responsibly (and can't blow it in Vegas) and you have a HUGE nest egg that is growing at market rates. (Given the recent dip, you'll be buying in at great prices for the market). What now? Whatever you want. Go ahead and burn through $36.4 million in hookers and blow if you want. You've got more security than 99% of the country. A lot of it is in trusts so even if you are sued your family will live well, and progress across generations. If your lawyer is worth his salt (I bet he is) then you will be insulated from most lawsuits anyhow. Buy a nice house or two, make sure they aren't stupid investments though. Go ahead and be an angel investor and fund some startups, but REFUSE to do it for anyone you know. (Friends and money, oil and water - Michael Corleone) Play. Have fun. You earned it by putting together the shoe sizes of your whole family on one ticket and winning the jackpot.
You 'da Man (Woman).
My wife, The Lovely Harvey, has never seen The Princess Bride!
I was unaware that my inlaws lived outside the country while they were bringing her up, but it would explain a lot.
I think I shall endeavor to correct this oversight.
I think she'll enjoy it.
She's got it pegged as being the kind of sappy love story that you'd expect from the title and not the comedy that it actually is.
Pelosi has pulled the House's AWB bill for now.
I am wondering if "there's an election in just over three months" had a major role to play.
It's been humorous watching the anti-gun Dems inadvertently proving, again and again, that modern sporting rifles are in common use and on the other side of the bright line in the sand test from no less than three Supreme Court rulings.
And it's millions of guns.
I can't find the damn case, but there is a ruling that puts just a few thousand examples of something as being in common use. I can't remember if it was knives or tasers. It might even be switchblades.
Comment if you remember this one too!
UPDATE:
The cookie goes to That Fucker Fleetwood for remembering it was stun guns.
That gives us Caetano v Mass at the USSC.
It's also yet another decision that says that it's not just the arms that where available at the time of the 2nd Amendment's ratification which are protected.
Seems we're on a run with NY(S)C subway stories.
How about a raunchy pool party?
I notice that in this and the previous story a complete lack of enforcement of the rules by anyone who's paid to do so.
Handsomely paid judging by the houses that NY(S)C Transit Cops buy when they retire around here.
Snark from Ace.
The scuffle turned physical when the straphanger stabbed the crazed rider in the head and torso with an "unknown object," cops said.
We need common sense unknown object control. -sniffybigtoe
Now we need both Unknown Object Control Inc and a National Unknown Object Association.
The former to ban the ownership, carry and use of unknown objects and the latter to promote the safe and legal use of unknown objects.
It will be epic!
The cure for cancer will have to wait, again, because a chief researcher has been murdered.
Antifa is going to declare war on 1% Biker gangs clubs?
While the article says that this will not end well, I disagree.
The odds of a positive, overall, outcome seems quite high to me.
Should be great fun to watch from afar.
My C&R FFL expires this year.
I have the renewal packet sitting on my desk.
I am trying to decide if I am going to renew it.
It's been handy a couple of times, I admit.
The best reason I can come up with to not renew it is being lazy.
Criminal's gun jams while trying to murder his robbery victim.
I notice a distinct lack of shooting from said victim.
The first rule of a gun fight is to have a gun, and the victim has not followed that rule.
Get a gun.
Get legal to carry it.
Carry it.
If the victim had had a gun, we might not still be looking for the criminal.
The criminal might still have been on the scene or trying to get medical care for a gunshot wound had our victim been armed.
David Warner just crushed all hopes of a Tron 3.
Dude was 80, after all and fuck cancer.
I cannot remember a role where he didn't do a good job.
Cast a Deadly Spell is a particular favorite.
I used to think that anyone with even half a brain knew that NSSF does not control the ATF.
Too soon?
Fuck it, I'm in.
My Wemic cleric was from Forgotten Realms, so I'm passingly familiar with this particular world setting.
h/t Lawdog
It is very rare for me to spell restaurant or sergeant correctly on the first try.
I KNOW that I do this and still cannot remember how to spell those words.
I remember how many years it took me to get from camoflage to camouflage, which should spur my brain to double down on not reversing the a and u in restaurant to restuarant.
Damned French loaner words.
Could this be roid rage, again?
I think that people's attitude about cops is starting to get some positive traction with regards to culling bad apples.
I don't think Pullease would have gotten more than some paid leave even five years ago and the officer he attacked would be looking at moving to a different department.
Monkeypox is being contracted and spread by, predominately, gay men.
It's simply a fact.
It's fallout from another fact.
A significant portion of men will not say no to sex from anyone they're remotely attracted to.
It's been my observation that gay men are even less likely to say no than straight men.
It's a perfect storm of factors to get a sexually transmitted disease further transmitted.
The specific gay men in question here also appear to be particularly bad at saying no AND don't seem to have enough restraint to stop having sex until they've completed treatment.
All of the above really isn't in dispute.
But what we have, on one side, is blaming ALL gay people for it.
I thought we were rugged individualists on the right. Specific, individual, people are to blame for this. Let's blame them and not assign blame to a group.
Blindly assigning blame to a group is called bigotry.
The other side is not showering in glory either and their kneejerk response of denying it's gay men fucking (literally) up here is enabling the spread because we can't say gay and target the most affected group of people.
There's idiocy aplenty here.
The Boy has been combative and resisting being taken to school.
Complete melt downs.
We've been forced to withdraw him from school before their attendance policy disqualifies him from future attendance.
In the course of finding out what our options are, we discovered that The Boy was amenable to the idea of moving out and going to a group-home environment.
Surprising herself as much as anyone, The Lovely Harvey managed not to have a full blown panic attack about the idea as well.
We've been fighting institutionalization for a long time because the institutions suggested weren't a good fit for him.
In the near 30 years we've been fighting, he's actually been doing some learning and getting to the point where he is eligible for what they call an intensive supervision group home rather than the very penal-like warehouses we feared.
It seems strange to be looking at him moving out and being "on his own".
His behavior specialist says that much of the behavior we're seeing is because we're basically unable to apply the proper pressure due to lack of staffing. At the home he'd get six people keeping in check instead just us two.
That means that his future options get even brighter and it's possible that he could move into lower levels of supervision and get more independence.
Still emotional to contemplate an empty nest.
Bill introduced to repeal the NFA.
With the current make-up of the House of Representatives and occupant of The White House, I don't expect it to get anywhere, but one can always hope.
If it does pass, I think I will frame my stamps.
Sadly it's typical of the Republicans to only make attempts like this when they are doomed to fail.
The Lovely Harvey's post-surgical infection was enterobacter cloacae.
Apparently it's commonly lurking in hospitals among the instruments.
We've got the appropriate IV antibiotic and we're doing very well!
Eyes, arms, legs and fingers crossed!
Watching the anti-gun people trying to make the Good Samaritan, who shot some asshole, in Indiana out as the bad-guy (or at least A bad-guy).
They keep walking right up to the edge of admitting that, yes, it would have been better if he'd obeyed the magical gun-free-zone signs and let some asshole shoot the place up more thoroughly.
So far they've caught themselves at the edge before they give away that a mass shooting is better for them than a good-guy-with-a-gun because they can get more gun control passed the more innocent blood there is.
Fucking ghouls.
The following Information was found in the Department of Defense (DoD) Small Arms/Light Weapons Registry for a M1911A1, Pistol Caliber .45, Automatic, NSN: 1005-00-726-5655, Serial Number: REDACTED. The records for this weapon are listed below in chronological order:
1. January 09, 1977 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama registered the weapon into the DoD Small Arms/Light Weapons Registry. (Prior to this it was arsenal refinished at Anniston in February '76 based on markings).
2. July 27, 1979 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the 200th Theater Army Materiel Management Center, 21st Theater Sustainment Command - Kaiserslautern, Germany.
3. November 20, 1979 – The 200th Theater Army Materiel Management Center, 21st Theater Sustainment Command - Kaiserslautern, Germany received the weapon from the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
4. March 19, 1981 – The 200th Theater Army Materiel Management Center, 21st Theater Sustainment Command - Kaiserslautern, Germany shipped the weapon to the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
5. June 11, 1981 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the 200th Theater Army Materiel Management Center, 21st Theater Sustainment Command - Kaiserslautern, Germany.
6. September 13, 1985 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 17th Area Support Group (ASG) - Sagami, Japan.
7. January 21, 1986 – The HHC, 17th ASG - Sagami, Japan received the weapon from the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
8. October 24, 1997 – The Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment (HHD), 35th Service and Support Battalion, I Corps (Forward) - Sagami Depot, Japan conducted an annual weapon serial number reconciliation on the weapon.
9. February 23, 1998 – The HHD, 35th Service and Support Battalion, I Corps
(Forward) - Sagami Depot, Japan received the weapon from the HHC, 17th ASG - Sagami, Japan.
10. September 23, 1999 – The HHD, 35th Service and Support Battalion, I Corps (Forward) - Sagami Depot, Japan shipped the weapon to the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
11. October 12, 1999 – The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Distribution - Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the HHD, 35th Service and Support Battalion, I Corps (Forward) - Sagami Depot, Japan.
12. September 08, 2000, January 31, 2003, January 29, 2004, January 23, 2005, February 12, 2006, January 29, 2007, January 27, 2008, January 25, 2009, January 24, 2010, March 06, 2011, December 03, 2011, January 19, 2013, March 07, 2015, May 01, 2016, March 05, 2017 and June 04, 2017 – The DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama conducted annual weapon serial number
reconciliations on the weapon.
13. February 02, 2018 – The DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama.
14. February 02, 2018 – The Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama.
15. February 02, 2018 – The Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon outside the DoD to the Civilian Marksmanship Program South – Anniston, Alabama.
16. February 13, 2019 - The Civilian Marksmanship Program South - Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the McThag Collection - Elfers, Florida.
17. February 14, 2019 - The McThag Collection - Elfers, Florida received the weapon from the Civilian Marksmanship Program South - Anniston, Alabama.
The following Information was found in the Department of Defense (DoD) Small Arms/Light Weapons Registry for a M1911A1, Pistol Caliber .45, Automatic, NSN: 1005-00-726-5655, Serial Number: REDACTED. The records for this weapon are listed below in chronological order:
1. January 13, 1988 – The Marine Corps Logistics Base - Albany, Georgia shipped the weapon to the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama. (According to the markings on the gun, it was refurbished in Albany, Georgia in November 1980).
2. February 05, 1988 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the Marine Corps Logistics Base - Albany, Georgia.
3. January 17, 1991 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the U.S. Army Logistics Readiness Center - Fort Knox, Kentucky.
4. January 22, 1991 – The U.S. Army Logistics Readiness Center - Fort Knox, Kentucky received the weapon from the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
5. July 30, 1991 – The U.S. Army Logistics Readiness Center - Fort Knox, Kentucky shipped the weapon to the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
6. August 16, 1991 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the U.S. Army Logistics Readiness Center - Fort Knox, Kentucky.
7. February 27, 1999 – The Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Distribution - Anniston, Alabama.
8. February 27, 1999 – The DLA Distribution - Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the Anniston Munitions Center - Anniston, Alabama.
9. September 08, 2000, January 31, 2003, January 29, 2004, January 23, 2005, February 12, 2006, January 29, 2007, January 27, 2008, January 25, 2009, January 24, 2010, March 06, 2011, December 03, 2011, January 19, 2013, March 07, 2015, May 01, 2016, March 05, 2017 and June 04, 2017 – The DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama conducted annual weapon serial number reconciliations on the weapon.
10. February 02, 2018 – The DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon to the Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama.
11. February 02, 2018 – The Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama received the weapon from the DLA Distribution – Anniston, Alabama.
12. February 02, 2018 – The Tank Automotive and Armaments Command Civilian Marksmanship Program – Anniston, Alabama shipped the weapon outside the DoD to the Civilian Marksmanship Program South – Anniston, Alabama.
13. November 14, 2018 - The Civilian Marksmanship Program South - Anniston,
Alabama shipped the weapon to Marv - Tampa, Florida.
